


Let Me Marry You

by HowHardCanItBe



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 02:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowHardCanItBe/pseuds/HowHardCanItBe
Summary: “What did you say?” Rafael Barba said, with an incredulous look on his face, as he stared at his boyfriend who was sat on the couch next to him.“You heard me,” Sonny said. “I want you to let me marry you, Rafael.”





	Let Me Marry You

**Author's Note:**

> This entire thing was inspired by a line in the beautiful Part 3 of AHumanFemale, Power-Bottom-Barba and Robin Hood's 'For Me It Isn't Over' series, where Sonny says: "Let me marry you, Rafael."
> 
> Everyone should read that series because it is beautiful, and one of my absolute favorite in this fandom. So, thank you for that perfect work, and I'm sorry for stealing your line. I hope it's okay, and I did it justice. 
> 
> I have, once again, created a work that is absolutely pure fluff and which is also completely unbeta'd. So I'm sorry for any cavities this may cause, and let me know if there are any mistakes! 
> 
> Love!

“What did you say?” Rafael Barba said, with an incredulous look on his face, as he stared at his boyfriend who was sat on the couch next to him. 

“You heard me,” Sonny said. “I want you to let me marry you, Rafael.” 

Sonny was gripping Rafael’s hands tight, and the expression on his face was stuck between pleading, pouting and grinning. If Rafael hadn’t been so busy being shocked, he would have been endlessly entertained by the way Sonny’s face was struggling to land on an expression. 

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I know you don’t believe in marriage, but Rafi,” Sonny paused to take a breath, “please let me marry you. I want the whole world to know that you’re mine. That you’re not just my boyfriend, but you’re my _husband_. So that I can tell the whole world that the great Rafael Barba at one point loved me enough to agree to let me spend the rest of my life loving him.”

Rafael really should have expected it. They had been living together for a while, and despite his general tendency to have a very pessimistic outlook on most things in the world, they _worked_. They were happy. Rafael was sure he had never been happier in his life. Even though they dealt with some of the worst aspects of the world every single day, and were faced with the horrors of what human relationship could turn into, it didn’t change the fact that they had managed to find happiness in each other, _with_ each other. Rafael really should have expected that his idealistic, romantic, optimistic, Catholic boyfriend would want to get married. 

Sonny was right, though. Rafael had said to him before that he did not believe in marriage. The thing was, Rafael had said that before they had started seeing each other. When they were still just a surly ADA and an eager to learn Detective, each with a crush they thought was unrequited, and they were working on a case of a man who had raped his wife. Rafael had expressed his thoughts on the ridiculousness of marriage, and how idiotic people who voluntarily chose to commit their life to someone else’s were, because it never worked out. 

That was the Rafael who had watched the absolute horror that had been his parents’ marriage. Who had had nothing but relationships that had left him feeling more empty, than fulfilled. Who spent every single day prosecuting real life monsters, who committed atrocities often in the name of ‘love’, or so they claimed. Who spent his time surrounded by other lawyers; lawyers who earned their exorbitant wages and financed their extravagant lifestyles through the decline of other people’s marriages. That Rafael really didn’t believe in marriage. 

The thing was, even though that Rafael still existed, he was buried deep underneath the Rafael who found out that his feelings for a certain lanky Detective were not unrequited. Who had smiled more in the last two years, since he realized he was not the only one fantasizing about clandestine meetings in his office, than he had in the previous decade. Who now knew what it was like to feel completely loved, and be so completely in love that he sometimes had to remember to breathe when he thought about it. Who could catch himself zoning out in the middle of a workday with thoughts of Sonny; not dirty thoughts, but just thoughts about how nice it would be when he got home and they could cuddle on the couch together. 

This Rafael? The Rafael who knew without a doubt in his mind that he could never stop loving his lanky Detective, and he would do whatever it took to make him happy? This Rafael believed in marriage; as long as the marriage in question was his and Sonny’s. 

Rafael looked into the blue eyes of his beloved man, the eyes of a man that was clearly still uncertain about the answer to his question. 

“Sonny,” Rafael took a breath before he continued, “you don’t have to convince me.” He grabbed Sonny’s face with his free hand, “Of course I’ll marry you.” 

Rafael was pretty sure that Sonny’s smile could light up the entire state of New York. 

\--

Sonny had still had his doubts about Rafael’s willingness to marry him, or, more accurately, about Rafael’s feelings about a wedding. Which meant that Sonny had tried to convince Rafael that he would be completely fine with a simple ceremony at the courthouse, and maybe a meal with their closest family afterwards. 

Rafael, however, knew Sonny better than that. He also knew that if they dared to have such a simple wedding he would be starting the rest of his life with his future in-laws, especially his three sisters-in-law, very badly. 

Moreover, since he had agreed to the whole marriage thing, he had found that he wanted a big fancy wedding; a celebration of his and Sonny’s love. 

Which was how Rafael and Sonny ended up being married in a church, but with the ceremony being performed by a Judge; a compromise since Rafael had long ago given up on his relationship with religion. A compromise the Carisi side of the guest list had not been too keen on, but they had been appeased when they found out it was a Catholic church, at least. 

Rafael wore a white tuxedo jacket, as per Sonny’s request, while Sonny wore his uniform for the ceremony, but a tailored tuxedo for the reception and party. 

There were speeches from all of Sonny’s sisters, as well as Rollins and Olivia, who all had earned laughs from the crowd as they told stories of how the two had danced around each other before finally admitting what the rest of them had seen all along. Even Sonny’s Nonna, who had flown in from Italy, and who was generally not too pleased about the fact that her grandson had married another man, smiled along with the rest of the guests. 

Sonny kept looking at Rafael as if he had hung the moon; as if he was the lucky one, the one who couldn’t believe that the other man had married him. Rafael recognized the look. He was pretty sure it was plastered all over his own face, too. 

They even had a traditional first dance. Rafael had objected, because he thought it was bad enough that he had to be the center of attention, but having to make a fool of himself on the dance floor as well? That was pushing it. Rafael had, however, clearly underestimated the power of Sonny’s pleading, which was how he found himself being led around the dance floor by his new husband, in front of all their friends and family. 

“Hey,” Sonny said as they spun slowly around with the eyes of a little more than a hundred people fixed on them. 

“Hey yourself,” Rafael said with a besotted smile. 

“You’re my husband,” Sonny grinned. 

“And you’re mine.” Rafael said as he closed his eyes and rested his head on Sonny’s shoulder while they swayed; completely ensconced in their perfect moment.

\--

The door to the hotel suite slammed behind them, but neither of them noticed. Sonny was too busy trying to peel Rafael’s jacket off him as he kissed him vigorously, while Rafael was just trying to stay on his feet while Sonny was determinedly steering them both towards the bed. 

“Babe,” Rafael tried to pull and away and say, but Sonny was done waiting and ignored him in favor of more kissing. After indulging his husband a little more, and after losing his jacket and bowtie in the process, Rafael finally managed to gather himself enough to push Sonny away long enough to actually take a breath.

“Sonny, wait,” Rafael said breathlessly. But that was all he managed to get out before Sonny was trying to kiss him again. 

“Rafi, c’mon, I’ve been patient all day,” Sonny said while kissing up his jawline, “I need to see my husband naked, _now_ ,” he said as he started sucking on Rafael’s earlobe. 

It took all of Rafael’s, not inconsiderable, amount of willpower to pull away from Sonny’s mouth, while saying, “I’ve got a present for you.”

“Is it in your pants?” Sonny said while wiggling his eyebrows. Rafael rolled his eyes and seriously wondered if there was a support group for people with a judgment as bad as his, who voluntarily chose to vow to spend their life with a ridiculous detective from Staten Island. 

“No, and if you got your mind out of the gutter for a second I might actually be able to give it to you.”

Sonny, clearly catching up to the seriousness of Rafael’s tone, finally pulled fully away from his husband. “Okay, okay, but it’s pretty hard to focus on anything else when you’ve looked like that all day, and you’ve also promised to spend your life with me today. A man can only take so much, Rafi.” 

That statement made Rafael blush, something he was proud to say only happened in the company of said man he had just promised to spend his life with. Nevertheless, he moved towards his bag and started looking through it. 

“Don’t worry, Sonny, after this you can do whatever you like to me.”

“You better believe I will, especially when you’ve got your ass in the air like that.” Sonny said, behind Rafael’s bent over form. 

Rafael managed to find what he was looking for, before Sonny could take advantage of the situation, and get his hands where he knew he was itching to get them. When Rafael turned around he was holding a manila envelope in his hand, and he held out the envelope to Sonny without a word. 

“Paperwork?” Sonny said with a little laugh, “You really know how to spoil a guy, babe. But I’m pretty sure I already signed my life over to you a few hours ago. Besides, I think it’s the first wedding anniversary that’s paper, not the wedding night.” 

“Just look inside it, Sonny.” Rafael said exasperatedly, but with a small smile. 

“Whatever you say, counselor,” Sonny replied, which earned him an eye roll and a huff, but he took the envelope, and pulled out the papers in them. 

Rafael tried his best to hide the pleasure he took in the changing expressions on Sonny’s face. He loved that he was still able to shock his husband, but he was still pretty nervous about Sonny’s final reaction. He was pretty sure he would be happy, but you never really knew, did you? Especially since the expression on Sonny’s face had yet to settle, and it had at least been a full minute at this point. Rafael couldn’t take it anymore.

“So?”

Sonny finally looked up at him, instead of at the papers. 

“So?” Sonny exclaimed, “You can’t just hand me _surrogacy papers_ and say ‘so’!” 

Rafael shrugged, because he did not know what else he could do. This was not the reaction he had thought his grand gesture would get. He had expected elation, hugs, kisses, maybe even a happy tear or two. Instead he had a husband who was clearly a little agitated. 

Sonny took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair, which had fallen out of its earlier carefully arranged state, before he said, “Are you serious about this, or are you just doing this for my benefit?” 

Rafael reached out to grab Sonny’s hand before he said, “I want to do this for _us_.” He then pulled Sonny close to him and put his other hand on his husband’s cheek, “You know that I never even thought I would want to get married before I met you, but then you convinced me to let you marry me, and I stopped lying to myself. I want everything with you, I want a family with you.” 

He could tell that Sonny was on the verge of those happy tears now, as he turned his head and started placing small kisses on the hand Rafael had on his cheek. 

“So, Sonny, my _husband_ , you want to have a baby with me?” 

Sonny grinned as he pulled Rafael close, and answered, by pressing his lips against his husband’s grinning lips.


End file.
